To commemorate Singapore's National Day today, I am reproducing an updated poem by Andrew Sia, former journalist from The Star newspaper, all in good fun:
They have 3 K's - Kiasu, Kiasi, KiaboWe have 3 R's - Race, Religion, RoyaltyTheir dollar is bigger, our houses are cheaperOur food is better, their food branding is betterWe go there to work, bargher...they come here to enjoyOur politics is sex videos, their politics is LKY's houseThey talk of uniting one nation, we talk of uniting one raceWe argue about religion, they argue about being diligentWe fight over Jawi-khat, they jump & cut aheadWe have the natural wealth, but why the hell are they richer?They value know-how, we worship know-WHOThey shake leaders' hands, we kiss leaders' handsThey go by meritocracyWe cari jalan with cable-tocracyTheir clean means less corruptOur clean means more "holy" 😅They have LKY & LHL, we have Razak & NajibBoth Father and Son, but different spiritSo don't complain, when SGD & MYR are 3 to 1We wanna charge them more for water, they say nevermind, can drink toilet waterWe call it Batu Putih, they call it Pedra BrancaThey want to expand, we say no give sand (but curi-curi maybe can)We have comedy king Harith, they have comedy queen KumarOur squash queen Nicol reigned longTheir swim king Schooling reigned dampMajulah Singapura is original, Negaraku was copiedBoth in Malay language, but they don't understand what they're singingWe had MCO, EMCO, CMCO & RMCOThey had CB, CCB & KNNBCCB 😅We both claim chicken rice, but hello, it's actually from HainanOur country is bigger, their country is saferThey nourish city trees, we butcher city treesThey promote cycling, we promote highwaysWe have cheaper cars, they have better transportWe were one country, now we're different worlds, First and Third
-- By Andrew Sia, Malaysian, 9 August, 2022
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